“I’m not throwing you out. But here’s the door if you don’t want to support my decision. Either way, what’s done is done. Thanks to you and Dad’s interference in my life all those years ago, I may have missed out on a lifetime with Samira. You made me feel guilty for even thinking about college, so I turned down scholarships and stayed here. Now you want me to feel obligated to run Dad’s business for the rest of my working life. Well, enough is enough. I love you, but it’s time I lived my life the way I want. You can either accept it and be in my life, or you can resent me and miss out on whatever is next. The decision is yours.”
Elizabeth closed the distance between them and gripped his forearm. “I had no idea you felt this way.”
“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t since you never took the time to ask.”
She recoiled as though she had been struck. Andy hated to think he hurt her, but he was angry over the way he allowed himself to be treated. He knew in his heart that his parents never meant to hurt him, but he couldn’t put up with it anymore.
“Give us another chance,” his mother requested in a voice barely a whisper. “Please.”
“That’s up to you, Mom. You know Eddy will do right by Dad. And this furniture business is important to me. Samira is also important to me. If I can convince her to give me the chance to make things right with her and prove that I will put her first, then you’re going to have to support our relationship. If not, you won’t be seeing so much of me.”
“She should understand that your family will always be your family, Andy,” his mother objected.
“After what you guys put her through before, can you blame her hesitation? She was so worried that history is going to repeat itself, that she broke things off with me. I’m not choosing herover you, but I won’t bring her around anyone who makes her feel uncomfortable,” he said.
Elizabeth was silent for several minutes. He hoped she was processing what he was saying. He hadn’t planned on saying quite so much, but after putting the conversation off for so long, everything just spilled out once he got started. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his mother, but they were long overdue for an honest conversation.
“You’re right,” his mother finally said after another long pause. “You have your own life to live. I’m sorry that we have kept you from living it. We always thought we were doing what was best for you. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know you and Dad wouldn’t intentionally do anything to hurt me. But can I ask you a question?”
“What is it?” she responded while she absently clasped and unclasped her fingers.
“What is the real problem you have with Samira?”
“I don’t have a problem with her,” she hesitated.
“Mom?”
“She just makes me nervous. I can see a difference in you when you’re with her, and I feel like I’m losing you,” she admitted in a shaky voice.
Another response he hadn’t been expecting. The emotion he felt behind his mother’s words caused him to swallow hard. He was finally beginning to understand his mother and her actions. It wasn’t that she wanted him to be unhappy. If he was tied down to his family business, then he wouldn’t be able to leave her. He stepped closer to her and pulled her into his arms.
“Mom. I’m not going anywhere. I’m only different when I’m with Samira because she makes me feel like I can be anything I want to be. Do anything I want to do. Just because I don’t want to stay in the family business doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere. The business I opened for myself is right here for a reason. Thisis where I belong. You aren’t going to lose me. If anything, you have a chance to gain someone else in your life. If you were paying attention, you would have seen the way Samira lit up once she began to relax at your birthday party. I think she’s really missing having a family and a place to call home.”
His mother’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. She took in a deep shaky breath and carefully exhaled. Looking up toward the ceiling, she blinked away the shimmer of moisture. Closing her eyes, she took one final deep breath before she spoke.
“We should be her home. You get her back and tell her. She belongs with us. This is home.”
Chapter 17
Samira dabbed concealer under eyes before applying the rest of her makeup. She rarely wore a full face of makeup, but she didn’t want to scare away any potential buyers. The real estate agent had scheduled three showing of her childhood home on its very first day on the market. She wasn’t completely sure why she volunteered to be there, but it felt wrong not to. She wanted to have some say in who would be moving in. Just because she didn’t want to live there didn’t mean she didn’t care what happened to it.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” she asked her aunt. Samira had spent the night there so the house would be spotless for the showings.
“I’m sure. I can’t bear the thought of strangers living there, so I’d better not go. I really hoped you would fall in love with it while you stayed there,” Mary answered.
“I did fall in love with it, Aunt Mary. It’s just that my life isn’t here. I can’t live in it, so there’s no point in keeping it.”
She noticed the quick flicker of emotion that crossed her aunt’s eyes before she blinked it away. Mary had recentlybecome more open with Samira than she had been before, so she wondered what her aunt was holding back from saying. The explanation came before she was even able to form the question.
“You can hang onto it you know. I have no problem keeping it up just like I had been before your uncle passed. There’s no rush.”
The look of hope on her aunt’s face nearly cancelled out Samira’s aversion to loose ends. Nearly. Even when she had left for the very first time, she made sure nothing was holding her back or waiting for her to return. She kept in contact with no one until after her parents passed away. After the funeral, her aunt and uncle became her lifeline. They didn’t hold her back because they never asked her to stay. They simply reminded her that just because both her parents were gone, it didn’t mean she was all alone.
Keeping the house would indeed be a very large loose end. It would stay in the back of her mind as something she needed to take care of. With her new job starting, she couldn’t have something like that nagging at the back of her mind. She needed all of her focus to concentrate on her new position.
Without any further argument, her aunt walked her out to her car and wished her good luck with the showings. As she pulled up to the house to find a few cars already there, she hoped some of that luck her aunt mentioned would make an appearance sooner rather than later. She parked her car on the street and walked up to the front door.
